Night of Despair-Chapter 116 - : Prevention

Chapter 116: Prevention

“Speaking of which, Yu Hong,” Li Rushan asked after hearing from Zhou Xueguang about his rescue, “I heard from Old Zhou that you encountered Du Chengtao when you came back?” But he was still half-doubting in his heart.

After all, Li knew exactly what skills Yu Hong possessed; Yu Hong had bought his basic legwork techniques from him.

If Yu Hong could handle a general expert, especially with the combination of firearms and equipment, Li could comprehend. But taking down Du Chengtao directly seemed a bit too exaggerated.

Li knew how tricky Du Chengtao was.

He was aware that Yu Hong had defeated many with weapons and gear, but Du Chengtao was different.

This guy was a fully enhanced human; wearing any light gear, he was impervious to ordinary bulletproof vests, unless it was high-end custom gear from the market, like the Blue Whale set. Maybe one could withstand a direct confrontation for a while and save their own life.

...

But it was only good for running away.

Facing a monster who could punch through walls with the bare strength of a ton or two, Li didn’t believe Yu Hong’s gear could withstand such power.

“It was pure luck,” sighed Yu Hong. “Du Chengtao saw that I was less physically robust than him and became somewhat careless. I took him down with a specially made weapon; moreover, when I encountered him, he wasn’t wearing any equipment nor carrying any weapons, completely unarmed…”

Li Rushan suddenly understood.

“That’s no wonder…”

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

Without gear, even a fully enhanced human is still flesh and blood, merely stronger than the average person, but that doesn’t mean they could resist bullets and bombs bare.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on 𝑛𝘰𝘷𝕘𝗼.co

Only when equipped with corresponding advanced gear and weapons do they become war machines, slaughtering devices.

Even the strongest enhanced human, without gear, could be taken down with a single bullet.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore; Old Zhou’s intelligence came at a critical time. We must work together and prepare as soon as possible,” Li Rushan said.

The three quickly reached a consensus.

The impending considerable danger left them no time to think of anything else and hurried to stock up for future refuge.

After the agreement, Zhou Xueguang decided to stay temporarily in the postal office’s underground bunker to heal while also writing down protection tips.

Yu Hong quickly returned to the safe house.

As he went back, the courtyard outside the cave had new growths of dense luminous grass.

Looking at the newly sprouted luminous grass, a faint sense of safety surfaced again in his heart.

Upon entering the house, Yu Hong promptly took the solar panel, placed it beside the car, then returned to the safe house and began digging the third underground chamber with all his might.

He planned to dig another chamber within a month, intended as a backup room to store the nuclear energy generator and water system.

Times slowly passed in stone carving and practicing martial arts, and in the blink of an eye, more than two days had gone by.

Li Rushan had already set off for Yuanfeng City. It was a place even farther than Baihe City, about three hundred kilometers from here. Without the solar-powered car Yu Hong provided, it would take Li at least half a month to return.

But with the car, travel time was, at most, two days.

Of course, this assumed there were no mishaps.

Thud, thud, thud.

Inside the wooden hut in the courtyard, large chunks of luminous stone were smashed into powder by Yu Hong, packed in a metal barrel as a supply for the future enhancement of the Large Pyroxene Stone ink.

Sitting in the cabin, he occasionally heard the strange calls of the Multi-eyed Birds from afar.

Fortunately, these bizarre birds had become rarer, calling out just occasionally, and their sounds grew ever more distant.

If this had been before, he would have been pleased, as it meant increased safety nearby. But now… having learned some of the Black Disaster’s patterns from Zhou Xueguang, he understood that the Multi-eyed Birds, danger level four creatures, were avoiding something even more dangerous, higher-level Black Disasters.

Bigger troubles were coming…

‘Thank goodness today’s food will almost be fully enhanced.’ After grinding the luminous powder for a while, he checked the time, stopped his work, stood up with a sack of the ground powder, and hurried across the field back to the cave’s entrance.

Using the key, he unlocked the door, put down the bag, closed the door, and Yu Hong with some eagerness, entered the basement.

In the basement, the earlier stack of food cans had completely disappeared, replaced by three neatly packed white cardboard boxes.

Printed on the box in black letters was: Emergency Nutrition Paste.

Yu Hong, with a hint of curiosity, approached one of the boxes, sliced open the sealing tape with his nail, and lifted the lid.

Inside were green plastic tubes containing some sort of paste.

Each of these tubes was the length of a handspan and as thick as two fingers side by side, with detailed instructions written in dense print on the green surface.

‘Standard Balanced Nutrition Paste: One tube per day for adults over eighteen, sufficient to replenish all the microelements required by the human body and provide the basic calories needed for daily activities.’

‘Warning: Please consume within the shelf life. Nutrition paste cannot replace fresh food, and prolonged use may lead to anorexia.’

‘Shelf life: 1095 days. Storage conditions: Cool, dry place, away from light.’

“Wow… a hundred tubes in one box, three hundred in three boxes, powerful!” Yu Hong meticulously read the instructions and, noticing the quantity marker below, his mood instantly improved.

Three hundred tubes meant a supply for three hundred days; if used by just him, that was enough for ten months.

‘Considering my increased appetite now and extra meals needed for training, if I consumed two portions a day, I could still last five months! And the key is it supplies all the necessary nutrients. Even without mushrooms and wild vegetables, things shouldn’t be a problem here.’

Yu Hong quickly opened the other two boxes to check, finding them identical. The nutrition paste even contained a small amount of moisture, sealed in perfect packaging.

After a thorough check of the food supplies, Yu Hong cautiously moved the boxes to a corner, then shifted the nuclear energy generator to the newly dug third small basement room of the past two days.

This third basement, directly behind the first two and parallel to both, connected by passageways, was only possible thanks to Yu Hong’s greatly enhanced strength and stamina, allowing him to dig out a cube of 3x3x3 meters in just a couple of days.

This space was perfect for the nuclear energy generator and water system.

Soon, after moving things around, Yu Hong exhaled and stood in front of the door to the third basement, his hand pressing against the wall.

‘Enhance the safe house, direction: integrate the nuclear energy generator, water supply system, perfect the pipeline routes, and increase the wall thickness of the safe house.’

He swiftly determined the requirements he wanted to achieve.

This was actually just about integrating a nuclear energy electric generator and a water supply system into the safety house using the Black Mark. Just like the original fireplace.

Soon, the Black Mark shot out a black line, followed by feedback.

“Do you want to enhance the safety house?”

A countdown appeared on the wall in front of Yu Hong: 26 days, 15 hours, 07 minutes.

“26 days, huh…” Yu Hong breathed a sigh of relief within himself, fearing that if it took too long, a more dangerous Black Disaster would arrive and he wouldn’t be prepared. That would be tragic.

Now that there was enough time…

“Yes!” he affirmed in his mind.

The countdown flashed slightly and then began counting down.

Yu Hong stood up, his face full of anticipation.

After this time, he would have at least twenty years of stable energy supply and a steady water supply system.

By then, with food cultivation in an underground bunker, no matter how dangerous the outside world was, he could live self-sufficiently within the safety house, without worrying about the various threats.

The Pyroxene Secret Room would ensure he remained hidden from most Black Disasters’ sights, completely concealed.

***

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***

Baihe City.

The third underground passage in the suburbs.

In the gloomy and spacious passage, a team of fully armed combined military soldiers, carrying guns and talismanic boards, moved deeper into the tunnel, carrying some dazzling high-power lighting equipment.

“How much further, Linzi?” the man at the front asked in a low voice.

“We’re 220 meters from today’s patrol checkpoint,” another person following behind replied quickly.

“Good, almost done. After today’s patrol, I’ll treat everyone to a drink at the Rat Bar,” the leader breathed a sigh of relief, a smile faintly visible on the face inside his helmet.

“Thanks, Captain!”

“Long live the Captain.”

The atmosphere among the group of six suddenly became lively; these days, drinks were so expensive that their meager salaries hardly permitted such indulgences.

However, while everyone was in good spirits, one of the team members at the back didn’t react. His chubby face under the helmet was soaked with sweat, his hair plastered in strands to his forehead.

“Old An, why so quiet? The Captain, that stingy guy, is seldom treating us to drinks. If it weren’t for his upcoming promotion and raise, we wouldn’t have gotten this rare opportunity,” a female team member with a red ponytail whispered.

“Uh… I… I…” chuckled the chubby man, lifting his head, his helmeted face revealing an inexplicably blank expression.

“Old An? What’s wrong?” the redhead asked with some concern.

“What did you just say?” Old An suddenly asked out of context.

“I asked what’s wrong with you?” she repeated.

“I…” Old An lowered his head, “I just… want… freedom!!”

Beep beep beep.

Suddenly, a clear electronic beeping emanated from his body.

The nearby teammates immediately sensed something was wrong, their expressions changing as they tried to scatter.

But it was already too late.

Boom!!!

In a flash, Old An’s entire body was shredded by a massive orange-yellow fireball, engulfed in the flames.

The flames quickly expanded, sending a huge shockwave that filled every corner of the passage.

It also engulfed the whole unit of combined military forces that had been on their exploration mission, wiping them out.

“What? Another sudden case of hearing voices, getting manipulated, and then self-destructing!?”

At the combined military command of Baihe City, located in the downtown area directly above the underground civil defense shelter,

A white-haired man dripping with sweat answered the phone, panting heavily.

He was dressed in a purple-black military uniform with two insignias embroidered on his shoulders, each insignia consisting of a ribbon made up of tiny star particles that surrounded a simplistic silver sketch of a sunbird.

Such insignia in the combined military showed the rank of Major General, worn only by those in command of an entire prefecture-level city like Hope City.

The man anxiously answering the phone in this underground office was Baihe City’s current highest military officer—Chen Xingzhao.

“Three patrol teams have been manipulated to death or injury in just two days. Have all the bodies and sites been quarantined? Have you implemented absolute silence from a distance? Language Persons, these Evil Shadows are easy to prevent once their principle is understood. How could you let things get to this state?”

Chen Xingzhao was quite furious.

As long as one was not infected by a Language Person and was isolated in time, their harm was actually limited, which is also why, despite having killed so many, they were still only classified as a Level 4 threat.

“Commander, now is not the time to investigate how the Language Person infected us, we need to take urgent measures to prevent the spread!” a middle-aged woman’s voice on the phone said decisively.

“Immediately broadcast a repeated announcement, send out the Silence Operation team for screening, and use the Lock-Light model trackers sent from Aurora City to track the subtle movements of the Language Person at close range.” Chen Xingzhao gritted his teeth and quickly ordered.

“Yes! But how do we handle the areas already attacked by Language Persons?” asked the middle-aged woman again.

“Deploy the enhanced squad at the fastest speed to approach and launch sound-absorbing foam. Completely seal off the corresponding areas,” Chen Xingzhao ordered.